A Devil's Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love

Three Cheers!!! This isn't merely a collection of essays from an esteemed old friend - it's a comprehensive review of the natural (and scientific) way of experiencing our world..."We already know that our senses are easily deceived...the lessons that conjurors, the honest variety and the imposters, teach us is that an uncritical faith in our own senses is not an infallible guide to truth." Here is the place for evidence, and eventually the scientific method. "Evolution gave us a brain whose size increased to the point where it became capable of understanding its own provenance, of deploring the moral implications and of fighting against them." Here is his advocacy of a system of ethics to deal with our evolved amoral tendencies. Some of the most beautiful prose I've ever read is the letter to his daughter, titled "Good and Bad Reasons For Believing." His take home message - show me the evidence. Elsewhere, he relates an interviewer pushing Carl Sagan for a premature answer. Asked, "But what is your gut feeling," Sagan replied, "I try not to think with my gut." Dawkins visits several old friends. His writings involving S. J. Gould are GREAT fun to read!! Gould was a colorful character and colleague who Dawkins frequently sparred with publicly. Dawkins comments on some semi-resolutions, some non-resolutions, and some "this shouldn't have been an issue anyway" items, and is not to be missed. For the hard-core computer geek, this is a gold mine: "The genetic code is truly digital, in exactly the same way as computer codes. This is not some vague analogy, it is the literal truth. Moreover, unlike computer codes, the genetic code, with a few minor exceptions, is identical in every living creature, from sulfur bacteria to giant redwood trees, from mushrooms to men...the present Luddism (fear of technology) over genetic engineering may die a natural death as the computer-illiterate generation is superseded." For those who just prefer a light-hearted good time, turn to the chapter on postmodernism. Along with other morsels of gaity, Alan Sokal's hoax on the "cultural studies" area of postmodernism is presented. Sokal wondered if he could write a paper bad enough so that any college physics student would become hysterical with laughter, but good enough so that a leading postmodernist periodical would publish it. Unfortunately for the "Social Text," the answer was yes. Now...ahem, about religion. Yes, Dawkins takes his patented "no prisoners" approach. "To describe religion as mind viruses is sometimes interpreted as contemptuous or hostile. It is both...as a lover of truth, I am suspicious of strongly held beliefs that are unsupported by evidence: fairies, unicorns, werewolves...the alleged convergence between (science and religion) is a shallow, empty, spin-doctored sham." There are 4 1/2 chapters with nothing but well-thought out comments on religion. Other phrases, lines and paragraphs of like thought are scattered throughou

Richard Dawkins (THE SELFISH GENE, UNWEAVING THE RAINBOW) is an evolutionary biologist at Oxford and a self-proclaimed "passionate Darwinian" (p. 10). In fact, it was Charles Darwin who first coined the phrase "Devil's Chaplain" in 1856. For Darwin, a Devil's Chaplain recognizes the "clumsy, wasteful, blundering low and horridly cruel" forces of nature at work in the process of natural selection. In his brilliant collection of articles, lectures, tirades, book reviews, essays and eulogies, Dawkins reveals that while Darwin's theory of evolution may be "bleak and cold," natural selection has also given us humans the biggest gifts of all: "the gift of understanding the ruthlessly cruel process that gave us all existence; the gift of revulsion against its implications; the gift of foresight--something utterly foreign to the blundering short-term ways of natural selection--and the gift of internalizing the very cosmos" (p. 12). Stated differently, while sharks may outswim us, cheetahs may outrun us, elephants may outpower us, and redwoods may outlive us, we are bipedal apes "blessed with brains" capable of understanding our precious existence (pp. 12-13).When it comes to understanding the nature of our existence, Dawkins' book reveals that he is more highly evolved than most humans. His book may be read as a collection of brilliant love letters to science and rationality, in which he insightfully examines a variety of subjects through the eyes of an evolutionary scientist: Darwinism, morality, jury trials, religion (which he compares to computer viruses), education, genetically modified foods, Africa, genetics, the New-Age fascination with crystals, September 11th, and infant indoctrination. As a lover of truth, Dawkins not only reveals his suspicions of strongly-held beliefs that are unsupported by evidence (p. 117), but he never ceases to revel in science as a source of poetry and wonder. Never afraid to confront a good controversy, Dawkins' collection is sure to antagonize creationists, Roman Catholics, fundamentalists, New Age gurus and paranormal preachers alike. Intellectually stimulating and highly recommended.G. Merritt

To some, Richard Dawkins is threatening. His phrases pry open shut minds. His words bend and flex rigid thinking. His ideas trash dearly held dogmas. And, of course, he idolizes The Devil's Chaplain - Charles Darwin [the title is from a letter of Darwin's]. He performs all these feats with a graceful style - one which anyone writing science should study. This collection is comprised of letters, book reviews and even eulogies - an unusual vehicle for espousing the cause of rational thinking. If much of his writing seems intense, it's because he recognizes his role in waging an uphill battle against "established truths", no matter how false they prove. To show the validity of truth over myth requires a direct approach.Dawkins recognizes that people abhor being called animals. The continuity of life, one of the major themes in this collection, remains an indisputable fact, he stresses. This series reinforces Dawkins' attempts to make us aware that we are part of Nature. He is always witty, using his sound scientific basis and rationale to keep us informed. Science, in his view, must not be eroded by baseless tradition nor false dogmas. The goal of living, he argues, is the understanding of life itself. Religion and philosophy have failed abysmally, the realm of science should be given its opportunity. It's a broad view, sustained by an ability to grasp it firmly. Better yet, for us, it's presented here with verve and dedication. Segregated into [lucky!] seven sections, each addressing a general theme. He covers many topics in this anthology - evolution, of course, but medicine, genetically modified foods [many foods are hybrids resulting from genetic manipulation], jury trials, intellectual heresies, and even government policies are included. The arrangement presents no difficulty - in fact, each offering might be chosen at random without losing any impact. Selecting a favourite is an arduous task [although it promotes re-reading] but the review of Sokal and Bricmont's "Fashionable Nonsense" ranks very high. The review demonstrates Dawkins' many talents, from insight to incisiveness. Few essayists provide the imagery he can attain to explain an idea.There are those, particularly adherents of the idea that science lacks morality, who see scientists as cold and distant. Dawkins shows how false this idea is with his laudatory comments on John Diamond, Douglas Adams and William Hamilton. He even extends an olive branch to his academic opponent, the late Stephen J. Gould. As fellow evolutionists, Dawkins and Gould forged a rapport against the rants and duplicities of the Christian creationists. It requires a broad mind to take such steps, and narrowness isn't among Dawkins' blemishes. He's a feeling human being and a tireless campaigner. We would all do well to heed and emulate him. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Charles Darwin said that there was grandeur in his view of life produced by natural selection, but it was not all a pretty picture. He wrote his friend Joseph Hooker in 1856: "What a book a Devil's Chaplain might write on the clumsy, wasteful, blundering low and horridly cruel works of nature." Richard Dawkins has taken the quotation for the title of a collection of his writings, A Devil's Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love (Houghton Mifflin). Darwin also wrote of a particular wasp: "I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae with the express intention of their feeding within the living body of caterpillars." But as Darwin (and Dawkins) would remind us, the evolutionary process has produced wonderfully designed creatures, and a wasp who cares for its young by letting them hatch within a hapless caterpillar is simply doing a competent job of getting the young off to a good start. It might be distasteful to us (and should have been to a supreme being), but nature just doesn't care. It isn't kindness of the mother wasp, or cruelty to the caterpillar, but simply amoral nature.But as chaplain, Dawkins notes that while wasps and caterpillars can do nothing about such amorality, we can. "At the same time as I support Darwinism as a scientist, I am a passionate anti-Darwinian when it comes to politics and how we should conduct our human affairs." There is no inconsistency here any more than in the physician who studies cancer, but is bent on eliminating it. And as devil's chaplain, Dawkins urges us to use our evolution-given brains, reject the pacifiers of faith in immortality, and rejoice in our short lives because they are all we have. Dawkins, you see, besides being an eminent Darwinian whose books like The Blind Watchmaker have wonderfully well laid out what evolution means, is also possibly the world's most famous atheist. You will find here his views on religious beliefs and creationists (or their newest incarnation as advocates of Intelligent Design), of course, but on "alternative medicine," crystal healing, homeopathy, and so on. Besides the rants, there is good humor and some warm tributes to friendship, especially in his memorials to his friends Douglas Adams and Stephen Jay Gould. The final chapter, "A Prayer for My Daughter," is a letter he wrote to her when she turned ten, to let her know how he thought she should select what to believe. The great question to ask in all disputes: "What kind of evidence is there for that?"Readers will be reminded of the belligerence of Thomas Henry Huxley, "Darwin's Bulldog," but evolution is only one theme here. Included is his hilarious review of the book by the hoaxer Alan Sokal who submitted a nonsense paper to a postmodern journal and had it accepted. He rages against postmodernism, with its "all views are equal" stance making his scientific view equivalent to a voodoo view. He expresses his doubts a